So what brought us to this small town of Tordesillas? Well, many things, one being that it is not a tourist town. Rick Steves doesn’t even mention it in his Spain guidebook. We wanted to experience a small-town Spanish atmosphere. We also wanted a short drive and a chance to recoup from our Salamanca party atmosphere. Tordesillas is only 80 kilometers from Salamanca. Another draw to this town is the modern Parador where we found a room. This parador is first class, very tastefully decorated, and there are many Spaniards staying here. This Parador has everything you need for comfort. The rooms are great, there is a workout room, enormous piscina (swimming pool), sauna, and several other amenities. This is also wine country, the D.O. of Toro. and there are many wineries in the area, mostly between the town of Toro and Zamora.
We explored the town and found that all roads lead to the Tordesillas Plaza Mayor. The plaza is about 1/20 the size of the Plaza Mayor in Salamanca and none of the Salamanca festive atmosphere. We had lunch here, a popular café called Viky. There was one waiter for the entire outdoor café of 20 or so tables. This is very typical of Spain; not to worry, take life slow, and eventually things will happen. This is a good thing.
After lunch, to our surprise in this small town, we found a tasting room. The winery is Bodega Muelas de Tordesillas. They make a couple of reds and one white, a Verdejo that we thoroughly enjoyed.
The wines of Toro are mostly from a variation of the Tempranillo grape, and called Tinto Del Toro. The wine is big, robust, and definitely one to have with red meats. We had a Toro wine, Liberalia Cuatro, with our dinner at the Parador. The wine was very good but definitely one to have only with big red meaty dishes. Best of all this delicious, quality wine was only 23 Euros in the restaurant.
Tordesillas is famous for the Treaty of Demarcation of 1494, among other things declaring that all Latin America belonged to Spain, except Brazil which went to Portugal.